Take care of your beaver!
This video via Feminist Law Professors is an ad for Kotex in Australia that has gotten over 185 complaints. I think the beaver is cute and the commercial, annoying at worst. So why are people finding it so offensive? Must be because the beaver is so furry. Sorry, I had to.
(Whoops, Jessica has posted on this before, but we'll leave it up for funsies.)
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That beaver is so cute!
I don't know about the complaints since I haven't seen them. Is it about objectifying the vag? Because men do that with their penises all the time. Is it OK for men to have a friendly, jokey relationship with their private parts but not women? Vaginas are serious!
Yeah, I've never under the, um, gravitas surrounding vaginas versus the levity afforded to pricks. I think we should be able to joke about them!
I think people are offended that using the visual "beaver" pun is vulgar to some. I personally don't like to refer to my parts with animal names (and frankly, have never understood the beaver thing) so I can understand that. Still on the fence about this though.
I actually really like this commercial. "Beaver" may not be the best term in the world but the ad is very positive. I like the happy and upbeat tone throughout the commercial - a great change from the shame and embarrassment tone of other vag products. The woman is not ashamed and is open about her good relationship with her beaver (who is super cute and not at all gross or scary).
I agree w/ Clownfish, its an entertaining, fun commercial. I suppose, though, that a number of people wonder about the appropriateness of the (unspoken) word "beaver" in a mainstream, primetime spot.
I actually really like this commercial. "Beaver" may not be the best term in the world but the ad is very positive. I like the happy and upbeat tone throughout the commercial - a great change from the shame and embarrassment tone of the commercials for other vag products (I'm looking at you, Vagisil). The woman is not ashamed and is open about her good relationship with her beaver (who is super cute and not at all gross or scary).
Wow - a 'feminine hygiene' add that's not about hating your body and hating your period. That's the most empowering thing I've seen from the folks at Big Tampon in quite some time. I still eschew indenturing my body to the corporate patriarchy (rock on DivaCup) but nevertheless, kudos on the new campaign.
Right on. I'll take a happy beaver over a shame cave any day! I just got my diva cup in the mail after using Instead for awhile. For once I'm sort of excited to get my period so that I can use my new diva cup. Schweet!
And check out this other ad, and what the company has to say for itself here:
http://www.ubykotex.com.au/play-with-u/
I second that! Now if I could just figure out how to use one of the cups....i can never seem to get them to 'fit' comfortably...but yeah, hooray for cute beavers!
Can I just say, if you've got your cup in but it isn't sitting comfortably cos it's not up far enough, the best solution I find is to masturbate for a while. The muscle contractions in yr vag will pull it up and in. As if you need an excuse...
Remember, that ad's from Oz. So the critter can't be a beaver; it's either a wombat or a platypus. :-)
Errr... It is a beaver. I'm from Australia. Just because we don't have beavers, that doesn't mean we don't use them in our arts and media. Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but it's definitely a beaver.
Not sarcastic, just facetious, as an Australian might be if an American commercial showed a woman with a koala, and if "koala" actually meant anything other than "koala."
That commercial made me laugh out loud, it's so cute. You mean our vaginas aren't the enemy!?
I love this. I agree with Discontented_Clownfish and SecondBeach that it is a fun change from all of the stupid, passive-aggressive, vadge-hating advertising that seems to come from feminine hygiene companies. But I'm one of those who isn't offended by the term "beaver" either, and like Danyell, don't get the correlation.
I'd rather see (and explain) this commercial with my kids than the 4-hour-erection/middle-aged-couple-in-bathtubs commercials.
LOLz. It made me laugh. At least it's right in suggesting that since you've only got one, you should love it and take care of it.
But I'm still not buying Kotex.
Seriously, though, what were the complaints about? I'd rather see a commercial like this than the frickin' ubiquitous liquor commercials with half-naked women directed to flounce around like sex objects.
I love it; it's hysterically funny. It would be awesome if my vagina was a sort of witches'-familiar animal who hung out with me. I'd dress it up in those tacky Juicy Couture dog raincoats. Vive la Beav.
That was hilarious. Thank you for the spot of sunshine :)
"Vive la Beav"?! AWESOME!! That is so going to be a button this year for my group's production of the Vagina Monologues, if you do not mind. :)
What I don't get is, how do you know it's tampons??? It's called simply "u", and the tagline was something about "for the ultimate care down there". But we see a beaver getting a wash and dry, and getting its nails (claws??) painted. Oh, and a suntan. It could be vaginal shampoo, wax, bronzer, tampons, or, heaven forbid, labia polish.
If you watch TV, you will notice that a lot of ads don't actually say what the product is or does. When a brand is ubiquitous, they don't need to. You probably don't notice this in commercials for common brands in your region b/c you are so familiar with the brands and what they are already.
Is beaver more offensive in Australia or something? As a term?
From experience, the term "beaver" is scarcely used in any form of conversation in Australia; it's considered highly American and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the ad was 'lost in translation' so to speak to many down here.
To some extent, I agree with what most people are saying about this commercial. It IS nice to see something positive, with a message that women can love and have fun with their vaginas.
On the other hand, I know what the beaver correlation is, at least in the male community--the idea is that a beaver is furry, and it is also an animal that "gnaws or chews on wood." Get it? In that sense, the beaver term really upsets me, especially because when I was growing up, I often heard males use this term in a derogatory sense.
So I'm all for the fun and non-seriousness of the commercial, but it's hard for me to get over my experiences with the word beaver.
If you don't see the misogyny in this commercial, it is because of the Patriarchy!
I'm an Aussie and I see these ads all the time and I love it. My friends and I are always coming up with new quirky names for our vagina's. We do this because it is fun not because were embarrassed about our vagina's. When talking in front of males we always call it vagina's though, nobody should be afraid of the word.
This advertisement was for the brand not for the product. There are other ad's from Kotex U brand advertising different products.
At least the company is not trying to make you afraid or embarrassed about your vagina's.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23358686-421,00.html
This is cute. Love the beaver.
I think it's cute that she loves her vagina so much. I thought I was a wierdo because I love mine a lot. It's better than other vagina commercials were women seem to act embarrased of their period or whatnot. And the upbeat song in the background makes the commercial even better (not to mention the beaver is really cute).
There's way worse commercials out there.
I think the ad is reasonably cute/funny. I would love to meet the crotchety (no pun intended) folk who complained about this ad.
I love the way it's hands move when it gets the present. Ell oh ell.
And it's true that perhaps beaver is used in a derogatory fashion by some, but what better way to reclaim than to morph it into something funny and positive? You don't usually get that in the media.